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Gnit. It's just stopped raining, ust enough or
for a couple hours, we'll have just enough
time to pull this thing off. Take those
juveniles to breakfast and be here by
eleven o'clock."
Me and the monsters finally made it to
the contest. On the way we somehow
managed to acquire the company of
mighty Rob Roskoff, the bio-Ohioan. Once
at the site, there were several cars parked
around the ramp. Everyone was standing
beside the ramp which was still wet.
Things didn't look good. Some of the
skaters decided to have an impromptu
soccer game on the ramp to dry it off.
Mr. Hawk, who was casually observing
the goings on, noticed a serious deteriora-
tion of the understructure of a portion of the
six foot section. Arming himself with a
hammer and some braces, he made the
e section safe again.
M
After awhile, the sun actually broke
through the clouds for a short period of
time. Enough to speed up the drying of the
ramp.
Mike Smith was all suited up on top of
the ramp, ready to be the first to drop in for
practice on the ramp. The rest of the pros
caught the drift, and without being told,
began to suit themselves up and pro-
ceeded to session.
It was eleven o'clock and the air was still
4free from rain. The men from H.B.O.
(arrived and the contest was about to begin.
Ra The owner of the property, Tom Sanchez,
set up a hotdog stand, and sold Chinese
burritos, chilidogs and beers. All the
comforts of home. Luckily our main man,
Steve Steadham, had the killer blast box,
or else our contest would've gone music-
S
less.
The ramp battle was under way.
Sponsors for the occasion were: H.B.O.,
Santa Cruz, Rector, Kryptonics, Gullwing,
Zorlac, Independent, Uncle Wiggley,
Variflex, Tracker, Sims, Madrid, Powell/
Peralta, L&M Lumber Co., Thrasher and
G&S. The fighting was fierce and all of the
skaters were putting in excellent perfor-
mances.
Don Hoffman and veteran sportscaster,
Bob McKewen, were providing the play by
play for the HBO programming. Don, of
course, comes from the D. David school of
broadcasting and was very hip on the play
by play.
The action on the ramp was fast and
furious. The intensity was enough to keep
the rain gods away for awhile. The skate
soldiers were going down one by one as it
was weeded down to the top ten.
The tenth spot went to Micke Alba, who
definitely had the highest backside airs of
the contest, Next was Tony Magnusson,
his style was smooth.
N
August 8,1945)
45
100°
off-the-hip of the channel was not short of
mind blowing. The last to go down before
the finals was Christian Hosoi. He took his,
bomb drop a step further when he jumped p
off the 12% ft. extension.
Neil Blender was the next to go down. His
There was a bit of a pause before the
finals. Across the way was Mr. Lowboy
yacking with George Powell of Powell
Peralta. Behind them were a few San
Francisco types, Los, Street Scott, and Mr.
Fish. I found out they had decided to bring
N
only one change of clothes to make more A
room for beers. Good idea.
The finals were getting underway. The
four finalists included three members of
the Powell/Peralta team and one member
of the G&S squad: Mike McGill, Tony
Hawk, Steve Caballero, and Bill Ruff.
12 The crowd was egging the finalists on.
air
va
First to go against each other were Bill and Just
Steve. I'm standing behind Don Hoffman
and Bob McKewen as they babble away.
"Bill Ruff, an outstanding young com-
petitor at age of 18, will be the next to ride.
We're down to the final four. We started
with fourteen. Most of the guys have
turned into spectactors and, oh wait. Here
comes Billy now, dropping into the ramp,"
Bob recites as his eyes bug out on every
Eradical move.
in
"Here's Billy Ruff. On his first run, he's
going head to head with Caballero, oh,
there's a bone-air over the canyon," Don
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Ramp Soccer, the Pro skateboarder way.
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The Editor and Stacy
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exclaimed.
"Billy Ruff is about halfway through his
run, he's really got it going, oh he reco-
vered nicely. Almost lost it."
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a
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"There's a rock-n-roll, oh, and that's time
for Billy Ruff and here are the scores. 90,
The esnuing battle
Colormen, Mckewe
and Hoffman,
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91, 91, 91 and 87. Next up, Steve Cabal-
lero. Oh, backside air."
av Look at that height, he is going in orbit.
There he goes into a handplant."
"There's an ollie aerial over the canyon N
again, a backside air. Rock and roll into a
fakie."
"Oh, I thought he was gonna lose it. And
B that's it for Steve Caballero. Here comes
B the scores."
o
The next battle casualty was Mark
Rogowski with his Roto-Rooter, and then
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Mr. Lance Mountain with his channel plant.
1942
Br.)
"That was a fakie air over the canyon
that got the crowd going at the end there,"
says an excited Don.
"The scores are 92, 93, 94, 97 and 88,
the high and low will go out, wow that was
a tremendous score."
"That's a ninety-three average. That
means that Bill Ruff has to beat a 93
average to beat him on the second run.
He's going out now, he's gotta beat that 93,
backside air into another backside air.
O.K., a frontside air. He's pushing hard, he
has to go for it. It has to be his best run of
the day. Beautiful, there's a reverse 360,
and that's it for Bill Ruff. He has to beat that
93 to advance."
"Here's the scores. 90, 91, 92 and 86,
not good enough. Bill will go to the losers'
140°
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Holl
44
A
bracket and Steve will not have to take a
second run."
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"Great coordination!" screamed Mc-
Kewen.
Balear
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"Tony is the youngest rider out here at
age fourteen. Here he goes."
Bri
"Now we'll have to see whether Hawk or
McGill will go against Steve Caballero.
Tony is first up," said Don as he swatted a
desert fly off his nose.
"He grabs the nose of his board and
makes it over the canyon. There's a
frontside layback air."
Darwin
Longitude 160° East of
Battle of
Coral Sea
Supply
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Narvik
140°
one off in competition routine until now. His
scores, 90, 89, 91, 87 and 85."
"Next up, Mike McGill," Bob said, as he
eyed a local girl that stood nearby.
"Here he goes, Bob. Mike's been real
strong in competition. O.K., aerial over the
canyon, another aerial, this time a frontside
air, that's three in a row into a handplant on
the 12 ft. extension. O.K., over again into a
frontside aerial."
"Another handplant, a rock-n-roll up on
that extension," added Bob.
"He gets another canyon, and that's
time. Looks like Tony Hawk has his work
cut out for him."
"Tony's gonna have to come up with
something unusual, a little bit extra. He'll
have to skate real hard because Mike is
real happy about that one. Here he goes..."
"Yeah, look at that, not only is he taking
I to the air, but he's taking a foot off the
board. Ollie aerial, a rock-n-roll. He pops it
into a fakie aerial, a handplant. O.K.,
Cfootplant, frontside over the canyon."
"Oh my god, that was unbelievable," Bob
shrieked in disbelief.
"Yes. Oh, and there goes another one.
That is a 360 degree, no hands ollie aerial,
good, good strong trick. Oh, and that's
time."
A
Kola Pen
we're in somebody's backyard.
Steve Caballero outskated McGill in this
round and Mike was to go down to the
losers' bracket to vie with Bill Ruff.
Bill, up to this point, was looking pretty
exhausted and had been resting in the
back of Gnit's car. McGill, on the other
hand had been skating continuously. Head
to head, they went. McGill was going
strong as was Bill. During Bill's last run, a
mist began to fall on the ramp. This made
60°
the ramp slippery, but he had to press on.
Isi The contest was almost over; he couldn'
stop now. Slipping, he took a fall and never
really regained his momentum. So, he
ended up in third with $100.00.
$2 McGill again had to face Caballero for a
final barrage. McGill has practically been
skating non-stop through the finals. Steve,
Fbeing the sportsman he is, and having the
option to choose his time to go, chose to go
first and gave his teammate a rest.
Steve's run was intense. He covered
Talmost every line on the ramp, with his
frontside footplants over the canyon that
were radical. It would be tough for Mike to
beat Steve Caballero.
"The scores are coming up, 91, 90, 92,
91 and 87. That means Mike McGill is
Lu
going to advance to go against Caballero
15 and Tony will drop into the loser's bracket
to go against Bill Ruff."
"We're going to see the losers' bracket
now. Tony Hawk and Bill Ruff for 4th Don
says with authority.
The impending threat of rain loomed,
darker and darker. The losers' bracket
skirmish was on. Tony Hawk was pushing
his pint size frame to the hilt. Bill Ruff
ripped intensely, pulling off an outrageous
frontside air off the extension and into the
shadow end of the ramp.
Bill hedged Tony out, so Tony finished in
fourth place and becomes $75.00 richer.
Billy stays alive. Now the attention falls on
the winners' bracket where we'll see McGill
go against Caballero.
McGill is to go first. Mike has a ramp in
his backyard, (although sources say that
h; he won't let any of the locals ride it) as does
Steve Caballero (who lets everybody and
44 his mother ride it). This is an interesting
"There's a rock-n-roll fakie into a 360
degree air. Another rock-n-roll, oh, but he
couldn't handle it once he hit the transition."
"I looked away a second and down he
went. That's Tony's first time down in all of
his rides today, there he's going again."
"Yup. That's unbelievable, he's really
G consistent today and that's time. His last
trick was a varial, he hadn't even pulled
RIA
(Frenc
point, that they're this far along in the
competition.
From my vantage point right next to the
car with all the beer in it, I could see Stacy
,& Gnit at the other end having a heated
discussion pertaining to Tony Hawk.
It seems that Tony took a fall on his last
run when one of his wheels hit a protruding
nail. Stacy wants Tony to have another
run. Gnit informs Stacy that that's just part,
of the course. The contest must go on.
Sometimes in the heat of competition,
there will be a controversy. Remember,
Mareth
Trine
Greenwich 180° Longitude
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Mike looked tired, definitely low on gas.
He took his run and pulled out whatever
last stops he had. When it was all over, the
scores were tabulated and it turned out
that Steve's scores were good enough for
him not to skate again. Mike McGill got
$200.00 and second place. So Steve
Caballero was the victor of The Great
Desert Ramp Battle and just scammed
himself $400.00.
We packed everything up and Gnit came
over and said that Georgo Powell was
going to host a bunch of pizzas and beers
and broads over at a local pizza joint. By
the time we got there, it was raining
heavily. Already there were Stacy and his
lady, George and his woman, Steve
ncCaballero, Frank and Tony Hawk, Rob
10 Roskoff, Craig Ramsay, Los de Frisco el
Fogtown, Street Scott, Fish, Ted, Lowboy
(disguised as an Eskimo this time), and
George Powell's son. Stacy was pouring
Dathe brews and began to run at the mouth.
>U
"I had the first ramp. It was portable. I
mounted it onto some trucks and used to
wheel it out of my garage and skate it. That
was in the old days."
Then from the other end of the table,
George Powell stood up, "I propose a toast
to a successful contest." Everyone stood.
4,and bashed glasses. I turned and looked
out the window at the pouring rain and
thanked the Skate Gods for keeping the
rain away until we finished the contest.
From behind me came a loud voice.
en
"I am the toughest man in this room!"
I didn't have to look to see who it was.
Someone had definitely had way too much
excitement for one weekend.
"Gnit, let's bail this scene, it's getting
telate."
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